Nimbus Clash
Nimbus Clash is a gnome warrior and leader of the Gnomeregan Blackjacks, an Alliance guild composed entirely of gnomes. Background Little is known about this gnome's childhood or teenagehood other than the fact that it was during this period that he met his best friend: Waidon Bursaw. World of Warcraft The loss of Gnomeregan was a severely serious blow to Nimbus, not only because he would probably never see his beloved city any time soon, but also due to the fact that he lost all of his belongings and, thus, was homeless. With the gnomes settling themselves at Tinker Town, Ironforge, Clash abandoned his life in the streets of the dwarven city and moved to live with in a small house his friend, Waidon Bursaw, had acquired. Despite enjoying his friend's hospitality, the gnome felt wildly out of place at Ironforge, not even Tinker Town was able to soothe his angry desire to reclaim his lost town and the "slowness" of High Tinker Gelbin only contributed to make him wish to act on his own accord. Thus, Nimbus rallied a number of his surviving friends and relatives and founded the Gnomeregan Blackjacks, dedicating themselves to fund their own crusade against the leper gnomes into their lost city and launch a final assault against Thermaplugg instead of relying on the High Tinker's decisions. Waidon, who promptly adhered to his friend's idea, was appointed as Clash's second-in-command. Wrath of the Lich King Nimbus is many things: a skilled engineer, a good swordsman, yet he isn't good in dealing with money nor were any of his fellow guild members, which caused him to have extreme difficulties in acquiring enough gold to supply their 225 soldiers with proper gear to assault Gnomeregan, which caused the guild to lose around 70 members ever since Year 26. To make matters worse, he was forced to reduce the Blackjacks' range of activity due to the casualties they suffered in disastrous operations at the Plaguelands in their mercenary works for the Argent Dawn, among them was Waidon. Having to endure both his guild's decline and the death of his best friend, Nimbus fell in a deep depression, which only contributed to worsen his administration and haste the end of the Blackjacks. Some time later, he was greeted with a surprise he wouldn't know how to react to, someone knocked on the door of his house at Ironforge in the late night, Clash promptly brandished his sword and opened it, ready to confront any sort of invader or assassin. There was a considerable crowd of gnome death knights in front of him, with a male right in front of the door, the one who knocked it. The warrior thought that Ironforge had already been taken by the Scourge and prepared himself for a last stand, but then the death knight who knocked the door removed his helmet, he revealed himself as Waidon. The sight was disturbing, Nimbus's best friend was now a green walking carcass of putrid flesh with dark powers, much like a leper gnome of sorts. Waidon smiled and saluted his friend, telling him about his ressurection and the atrocities he commited while under the Lich King's sway, and about the events that transpired at Light's Hope Chapel. Some of the other gnomes also removed their helmets, Nimbus instantly recognizing them as some of those who fell at the Plaguelands, they were there, in front of his house with many other gnome death knights who shared the same thoughts as him, to pledge their loyalty to Clash's guild once again. Nimbus was both thrilled and worried, his friend was back and brought many people with him, but he was different, undeath had mutated his behavior somehow, and Clash developed a huge distrust for the undead after the tragedies at the Plaguelands, so having them in the Blackjacks' ranks could be dangerous. Regardless of these thoughts, he accepted and pointed Waidon as the leader of the Dreadwalkers, name of the death knight squad of the Blackjacks. Thanks to the Dreadwalkers' arrival, the declining of the guild was reversed and, under Waidon's guidance, Nimbus led the guild in victorious battles at Northrend during the War against the Lich King. With the Lich King's defeat, Nimbus was met with fliers talking about an operation to retake Gnomeregan, which infuriated the Guild Master, as it proved that he failed his mission to compensate Mekkatorque's slowness in his decisions. Nonetheless, he led the Gnomeregan Blackjacks back to Dun Morough, where they took part into the massive operation alongside other Alliance guilds. Cataclysm The retaking of Gnomeregan's surface initially gave Nimbus a feeling that he had done his job, however, he started feeling uneasy as no true effort was made to get deeper into it. Thus, the Guild Master had the Blackjacks focus their duties solely at gnomish territory so that they could ensure their brethren would be ready to reclaim more portions of the city faster. However, his decision was heavily criticized and he was pressured to take measures against the forces of the Twilight's Hammer and other followers of the Old Gods, but the Guild Master insisted that aiding in the reclaiming efforts of Gnomeregan were top priority. Only after months of intense power struggles did Nimbus agreed to send forces for the final battle at Dragonblight, unwilling to put a harsh end to the prosperous time the Blackjacks were facing, having almost 400 members. Nimbus and the officers of the guild led them in successful swarm attacks across the ranks of the Old Gods' forces, the Guild Master himself leading a small group of warriors, priests, mages and death knights to aid the Alliance and Horde adventurers in defeating Morchok and then left the guild under the officers' supervision to join these same adventurers at he Skyfire, taking a handful of the guild's forces to join him in the final attack against Deathwing, after seeing Ultraxion's corpse crash against the ground. Thus, Nimbus not only returned to New Tinker Town with his guild not only as a hero and an esteemed war veteran, the events he took part in made him realize how foolish it was to hold his forces back so much and that, although Gnomeregan's reclaiming is important, there are threats in this world that, if not defeated, will decimate everything they fought for and there will be no city to recover. More than that, flashbacks of other races aiding in Operation: Gnomeregan came to Clash's mind, the guild master finally realizing that the Alliance had become more than a source of income and supplies to fuel his goals, he owed them much for the aid they provided to his people. With these thoughts in mind and after acquiring several new members thanks to their efforts at Dragonblight, Nimbus appointed mercenary teams to stay at each capital city of the Alliance under the leadership of overseers directly submissive to him, so that he could better serve the Alliance while making the ends meet. Mists of Pandaria With the conflict at the newfound continent of Pandaria growing dramatically, Nimbus called all the mercenary teams from all capitals and deployed with all of his forces to the new land, landing near the ruins of Garrosh'ar Point, where he personally coordinated all of the guild's operations against the Horde and the threat of the Sha. With the opening of the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, Nimbus led his guild in there and aided the Golden Lotus in fighting the dangerous mogu, the guild settling at the Shrine of the Seven Stars. The Thunder King Nimbus moved the whole guild again, deploying to the Isle of Thunder to aid the Kirin Tor Offensive in fighting against the forces of Lei Shen, the Zandalari, and the Horde. Around one month later, they returned to the Shrine of the Seven Stars as soon as the news of Lei Shen's demise reached Violet Rise. Escalation See: Gnomeregan Blackjacks' part in the Vendetta Conflict Nimbus received information that a rebellion within the Horde was ensuing at both Durotar and the Northern Barrens and that the rebels under Vol'jin had the support from the Alliance. Thus, Guild Master Nimbus sailed to southern Durotar, where he met with members of the Darkspear Rebellion in order to pledge their support to the trolls' cause, he then went to Northwatch Hold, not trusting the trolls enough to base his forces at Durotar. The bulk of the Blackjacks thus met their leader at Northwatch Hold, making daily travels to Northern Barrens in order to aid in the battle against the Kor'kron. Siege of Orgrimmar See: Siege of Orgrimmar Nimbus and his remaining forces fought in the Siege of Orgrimmar alongside the other Alliance forces and the Darkspear Rebellion. Clash eventually stumbled upon the Grey Legion again at the Drag of Orgrimmar and helped them defeat a group of grunts before running deeper into the battle to rejoin his forces. Trivia * Nimbus is a reference to the character Cloud Strife from the Final Fantasy franchise. ** Aside from the similar appearance, the gnome's names, "Nimbus" and "Clash", are synonyms of "Cloud" and "Strife", respectively. Category:Male characters Category:Gnomes Category:Warriors Category:Alliance characters